Hi, I am new to this forum and I was unsure where to post my problem so I hope here is ok!
There is a stray cat who lives around my apartment. The people who used to live next to me abandoned her when they left a few months ago. Everyone in my complex has been feeding her but have been unable to take her in. I found out about it just recently so I decided to take her in. I have another cat, he is almost a year old and he is very playful. So I figured it would do him good to have a friend to be with every day (hopefully this was a good idea!). Now what I'm worrying about is yesterday we tried catching her outside to take her to the vet. Well, she got scared and ran off so I had to reschedule the appt. for today. So to make it easier for us to catch her today, we put her in the basement last night. Now, she is a very sweet cat..she let everyone pet her, she tried following them into their houses when they fed her..but she gets scared easily. So when we brought her in the house she first was meowing at the door and there is glass in it so she kept running at it b/c she thought she could get out. Then we brought her in the basement so she wouldn't come in contact with my other cat till she got checked by the vet. We checked on her later that evening and she was hiding behind the washer/dryer looking really scared. She won't come see us, I think she is scared and she looks sad. Anyways, my question is..is this normal behavior when first taking in a stray? She had owners before and they kept her inside and all. They were not nice people so I don't really know how they treated her. But now I'm feeling it was a bad idea and she will be miserable forever if I take her in. I'm thinking I should have just left her outside and forgotton about it. I just don't know what to think. I feel bad. Anyone been in this situation before? What happened? Any info/advice would be helpful. Thanks a lot!!!